


It's Our Anniversary

by BrownFoxx



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Daryl Dixon Gives Oral Sex, Daryl Dixon Smut, Daryl Dixon/Carol Peletier Smut, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 05:52:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17595674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrownFoxx/pseuds/BrownFoxx
Summary: High school sweethearts Daryl and Carol Dixon have plans to celebrate their upcoming wedding anniversary weekend with good friends Rick and Michonne Grimes and mutual friends Abe and Sasha Ford, at the Grimes’ beach house on Tybee Island, GA.  The couples have been friends for years and are looking forward to the long weekend of celebration, relaxation and fun.  This  Caryl-centric (& Richonne and Sashaham-centric) tale has lots of back story and a cute ending!  Enjoy!***This work is not for profit; the TWD program characters mentioned are used for fanfic purposes only.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carol and Daryl hit the road... and have a little chat about some old friends.

High school sweethearts Daryl and Carol Dixon had big plans to celebrate their upcoming 19th wedding anniversary weekend. They’d married immediately after high school when Carol had become pregnant with their twin son and daughter and had been deeply in love ever since. They were excited about spending the weekend with good friends Rick and Michonne Grimes and mutual friends Abe and Sasha Ford, at the Grimes’ beach house on Tybee Island, down off the coast of Savannah, Georgia. The couples had all been friends for several years and were looking forward to the weekend of celebration, relaxation and fun. Michonne, Abe and Sasha were all relatively new to the party however, while Daryl, Carol and Rick had known each other for years; they’d all gone to high school together along with Rick’s first wife Lori, who most certainly WOULD NOT be at the house for the weekend!  
  
It was a little after noon on a beautiful, sunny Thursday in early August when Daryl Dixon arrived back at home after going in to work for a couple hours that morning to handle payroll at his restaurant’s (Triple D’s) downtown Atlanta location. He was packed and ready to go on his and his wife Carol's anniversary weekend getaway and Carol was waiting patiently for him to arrive so that they could get on the road.  
Triple D’s Bar & Grill (which most people thought was the bra size requirement of the waitresses who worked there,) really referred to the last names of the three co-owners, brothers Daryl & Merle Dixon and their good friend, Theodore Douglass, aka T-Dog. Originally the restaurant was called Double D’s, named for Daryl & T-Dog, but when Daryl’s brother Merle took an early retirement from the military, Daryl & T-Dog offered him an equal partnership since he’d helped fund the original location by cashing out his 401K years prior to help his little brother and his best friend make their dream of owning their own restaurant a reality. Merle decided to give it a shot, and stepped in as general manager of the Atlanta location, giving T-Dog a chance to formulate the next step of the plan to open a second location. They made a ton of cash and then Merle decided to take a stab at running a third location and projected profits had been so favorable for the trio that they were already in talks to open a fourth location in another year or so. Daryl managed the original Double D’s downtown Atlanta location, well known for its mouth-watering steaks and seafood and for having over 30 domestic and foreign beers on tap; T-Dog managed the College Park location, famous with the local college crowd for its burgers, barbecued ribs and in house DJ on the weekends, and Merle managed the much smaller Decatur location, which only sold drinks and a few selected appetizers from the main menu, and was popular among the local biker community for its strong drinks and ‘honky tonk’ atmosphere, complete with an electronic bull, pinball machines and an antique jukebox. Carol on the other hand owned Carol’s Corner, a small, yet popular coffee shop/book store/internet café in bustling downtown Atlanta, and was looking forward to getting away with Daryl for their anniversary.  
\-----------  
The drive from Woodbury, Georgia, the location of their suburban ranch home half an hour outside Atlanta, to Tybee Island, a popular vacation spot off the coast of Savannah and connected by bridge, is a straight shot northeast via the I-16 highway and usually takes the average driver less than 4 and a half hours give or take, depending on traffic & the time of year. For a backwoods born and bred native son, who’d been driving since he was 14 and knows every backroad shortcut in the great state of Georgia like the back of his own hand like Daryl however, the trip is guaranteed to be considerably shorter; 3 hours-tops. Unfortunately however, on this particular trip, once they finally hit Savannah, Daryl was nearing the five hour mark, and was still a couple of exits away from their final destination due to Carol’s insisting that they stop at damn near every ‘adorable’ little rest stop they passed along the way. Carol and Daryl hadn’t taken a road trip without the kids in as long as either of them could remember, and they were both excited. They held hands, flirted shamelessly like teenagers, stole kisses, told dirty jokes, listened to 90s rock CD’s, talked about the twins upcoming college plans (recent high school graduates Sam & Sophia were headed off to their respective universities in a couple of weeks,) and most notably they stopped more times than Daryl thought the law should allow to get donuts and coffee and to use the restroom; then stopped yet again for lunch at their good friend Glenn Rhee’s Pizzeria franchise location near Ft. Benning; (even though she’d already packed them a lunch of fried chicken, cold cut sandwiches, fresh fruit, hardboiled eggs and thermoses filled with homemade sweet tea;) but… when Carol saw the Rhee’s Pizzas sign, she said that she could go for a slice (make that two,) of Glenn’s House Special “double cheese, double meat, special sauce and hold the anchovies, please,” Daryl felt obliged to get them for her. She also insisted that they stop and buy homemade pecan pralines, pecan brittle, hand dipped chocolate pecan candies, peach pies, peach preserves and freshly brewed jars of peach sun tea from nearly every mom and pop owned peach and pecan produce stands dotting the countryside, and then alas, they had to stop yet again, once they arrived in Savannah, just so that she could use yet another restroom.

Due to traveling between lunch time and the afternoon rush hour, traffic had been beastly on both ends and once they were FINALLY cruising toward the bridge that would take them to Tybee island it was going on 6 pm, an hour and a half later than Daryl’s original estimated time of arrival. Michonne had already called to see where they were (Abe and Sasha were already there,) and all Daryl could do was shake his head as Carol mentioned possibly stopping AGAIN to buy a few MORE souvenirs for the kids. 

“Babe, we’ve got all weekend and the ride back home for that!” he chuckled. “We’re already way behind schedule as it is… We should’ve been down here damn near two hours ago! Rick’s already fired up the grill. He and Michonne probably think we got lost!” 

“Daryl Dixon? Lost? Oh please,” Carol exclaimed with an exaggerated eye roll. Everyone who knew Daryl knew that was impossible. Aside from knowing practically every backroad in the state of Georgia, Daryl was also wild game hunter in his free time and could find his way out of deep woods in a blindfold.

“Speaking of Rick and Michonne, I think they have an anniversary coming up too,” Carol replied thoughtfully. “We’re gonna have to get them a nice present. What’s it been, about seven years now?”

Daryl grunted in the affirmative. “Yep... their oldest is about six I believe, and Carl’s only a year behind the twins so that makes him 17 now... I think he was about 9 or 10 when Rick and Lori split so that sounds about right. Ya know, I still can’t believe how those two hooked up in the first place. I know it was years ago but whenever I think about it randomly that whole story still blows me away. I mean it all worked out for the best in the long run... ‘Chonne’s a great lady and Rick’s crazy about her but that whole scenario with Lori and Shane was crazy. She turned out to be a real piece of work. Talk about turning a whore into a housewife... or in her case, a housewife turning into a whore...” he laughed.

“Daryl, be nice,” Carol warned. “Lori was one of my best friends in high school!”

“She weren’t one o’ mine,” he grunted. “Turned her nose up at me ev’ry chance she got... ‘specially before we started dating. She couldn’t believe you wanted to go out with a ‘nobody’ like me, remember? She didn’t start actin’ truly civil to me ‘til we got hitched and I went on all those double dates you dragged me on with her and Rick.” It was true. Lori was a major snob back then... and still was despite her ‘good girl gone bad’ antics with her current husband, Shane Walsh, who’d also gone to high school with them (and had been the major cause of her divorce from Rick.) Daryl and Merle’s family had lived in a shabby trailer park on the wrong side of the tracks way back then and Carol’s circle of wealthy friends made it obvious to him that they thought he was beneath them, even after he started going with Carol, who loved him and didn’t care where he was from. Rick was the only one of their circle besides Carol who was always friendly to him and it took Daryl a long time to get over it.

“Daryl,” Carol groaned.

“I’m serious Carol. Poor Rick was a total wreck after they broke up! He was nuts about her bony, stuck up ass!”

Carol rolled her eyes. “I remember... and thankfully you were there for him when he really needed a friend... and now he’s happier than I’ve ever seen him.”  
Daryl nodded and kept driving. His best friend’s divorce wasn’t the most pleasant of subjects but Daryl couldn’t help thinking about it since he was headed to the man’s beach house for the next few days...


	2. Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daryl thinks back on how his good friend Rick ended up with Michonne...

Daryl reminisced in silence on just how hard RIck had taken his divorce. He and Lori Grimes had been high school sweethearts, just like Daryl and Carol had. They’d gone on countless double dates together with them too before the divorce and Rick married Michonne a few years later. The divorce was a tough one; Rick proposed to Lori on the night of their high school graduation and she’d happily accepted and once he completed cadet training at the local police academy that following year and had a stable job making good money, they were married in a beautiful, elaborate ceremony at Lori’s family’s church in Woodbury, Georgia with her two younger sisters, a few cousins and several of her closest girlfriends (including Carol) serving as bridesmaids, and her matron of honor had been her older sister Karen, who’d married Tyreese Williams, a pro football star from Atlanta that previous year. 

Rick had taken an entry level position with the King County Sherriff’s office as a highway patrol officer, and worked full time plus all of the overtime he could handle to support his new bride’s dream of becoming an art teacher. Lori attended school full time at Central Georgia State University and only worked part time. They rented a cute studio apartment in Woodbury and she worked one or two nights a week and every other weekend as a waitress at Dale Horvath’s Steakhouse, a popular family restaurant in town. They were deeply in love and practiced making a baby a hell of a lot and not surprisingly it wasn’t long before their son Carl was born. Rick was a dependable and hard worker who was well liked and highly respected by his peers and superiors alike at the sheriff’s office, and as such he quickly ascended the ranks ladder with numerous title promotions and frequent raises in pay. Before long he was able to buy Lori a beautiful, split level ranch starter home in the suburbs. Once Lori had her bachelor’s degree, she took a job teaching art at Carl’s elementary school, and after getting her master’s degree a couple of years later, she snagged a high paying position with King County Community College as an art professor. Meanwhile, Rick had begun taking classes at Woodbury State College part time at night and eventually earned his bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice and later received a big promotion to the position of Chief Deputy. By that time, he and his wife were doing quite well financially and they upgraded their home; adding a large in-law suite to the house, having a deck and a spacious in-ground swimming pool put in and even got a Jacuzzi spa tub installed in their master bath. 

Rick and Lori were very happy for the most part for the first several years of their marriage but over time they’d started having problems; mainly stemming from the fact that they’d grown bored with one another in the bedroom. They’d both only dated a couple of other people while in high school and had gotten married at age 19 so it wasn’t surprising that they were both more than a little curious about other people sexually after a while but didn’t dare confide in each other for fear of hurting the other’s feelings. Rick frequently thought about sleeping with other women, but he really didn’t want to cheat so he started watching porn on his cell phone and on his laptop at home late at night once he knew that Lori was asleep. He was still very much attracted to Lori however, so he mostly fantasized about most men’s ultimate dream; trying a threesome with his wife and another woman. He’d NEVER dare ask Lori for such a thing, however; instead he kept watching porn and began going to strip clubs with the guys down at the precinct after their shifts some nights, paying top dollar for private lap dances from two dancers at a time since that was his ultimate fantasy. 

Lori on the other hand had immediately noticed that she no longer had Rick’s full attention so she started wearing more makeup and dressing a little ‘sexier.’ But instead of just catching Rick’s eye, she started getting a lot of attention from other men as well. She was still young, in perfect shape despite giving birth to a near ten pound baby boy, and quite beautiful in an ‘1980’s era supermodel’ kind of way, and once she started purposely trying to get attention, she got it quite easily; usually from random guys she came across at the supermarket or Walmart, from a few of her male co-workers at the college and even from some of the male students on campus. She didn’t want to admit it but she really liked how the seemingly harmless flirting with the men she came across made her feel; especially since Rick suddenly seemed so distracted all of the time lately. She didn’t think that he was cheating on her but she could tell that something was off because she knew Rick Grimes like the back of her own hand. Since he wouldn’t open up to her however, and was spending more and more time out with the guys she started hanging out with her old sorority sisters from college on the weekends, a few of whom still weren’t married yet. She enjoyed going to bars with her girlfriends and stashing her wedding ring in her purse so that she could openly flirt with any guy who’d give her a second glance, just for the ‘fun’ of it, and before long, the thrill she got from flirting with other men had become as addictive as a drug since she felt like Rick was too busy for her most of the time.

Those circumstances were a recipe for disaster. Although Rick was bumping and grinding with strippers while Lori was only doing a little ‘innocent flirting,’ she was the one who ended up sleeping with someone else first. Surprisingly the man who swept her off her feet, (and literally sweet-talked her out of her panties) was Shane Walsh, Rick’s best friend and partner on the force... of all people. What made it even worse was that Shane had stood up as Rick’s best man at their wedding!

Rick nearly lost it when he finally figured out what was going on; Shane was his son’s godfather for goodness sake! He was so mad that he wanted to kill Shane with his bare hands for taking advantage of his ‘sweet, innocent’ Lori. Surprisingly he was saddened by Lori’s actions but not exactly angry with her however and he forgave her before long because deep down, he felt like her affair was at least in part, his own fault. He felt guilty about ignoring her as well as about the thousands of dollars he’d thrown away during his frequent strip club visits, and knew that if he’d been at home making love to his wife every night instead of hanging out in every titty bar from King County to Macon she never would have strayed. It wasn’t like her to behave in that manner at all; she’d always been a great mom and devoted wife until then and he figured that Shane must’ve offered her something that he hadn’t while he was out going to strip clubs. He was ashamed that Shane had provided a need that he didn’t fulfill for her and truly believed that he’d let her down. 

Rick and Shane were polar opposites but had become close friends once they started playing baseball together in junior high school. Three things they had in common were their mutual love of the sport, skill at the game and devotion to the team and they bonded over that and the friendship between them just stuck. Once in senior high school, they remained thick as thieves but their personalities hadn’t changed a bit; in fact they grew even more opposite. Rick was still on the quiet side, always polite and kind-hearted to a fault as well as serious minded and focused on his studies. He liked girls… and later sex… A LOT, but he was not the type to kiss and tell nor brag to his buddies about the few girls he’d gone all the way with. Shane on the other hand… well he was the type to kiss and tell every sordid detail of his many sexual conquests. He loved to brag about his numerous freaky sexual adventures, some with girls at their school, but most were with college chicks and even a couple of older women, making all of his friends green with envy because the kind of kinky details he gave up were too good to be a bluff; and not to mention, he had a small army of girls at school who openly had crushes on him. Shane was tall and well built, strikingly handsome, loud, brash and cocky, and a star on both the baseball and football teams as well as on the swim team and wrestling squad. He was quite vain about his dark, rugged good looks, designer wardrobe and rock hard body, sculpted from years of discipline on the field and in the gym. His father, Shannon “The Cannon” Walsh, had been a bigtime professional wrestler in the late 1970’s and early 80s and later worked as a high ranking official for the southern division of the top wrestling federation league in the country and as such he earned boatloads of money. Shane wasn’t interested in following in his father’s footsteps to become a pro wrestler however; nor did he want the free college ride his folks offered him, nor the thousands of dollars colleges were throwing at him in sports scholarship money; Shane had wanted to be a cop since he was a kid, and that’s what he was determined to be. He liked the idea that being a cop would make him untouchable. He enrolled in the academy the week after he’d finally sobered up from all the drinking and partying he’d indulged in after his high school graduation and easily passed the vigorous basic cadet training. Shane’s mother, Carla Martinez-Walsh, a Cuban born former model turned interior designer (who only socialized with the snobby crowd in Atlanta) was highly annoyed at Shane’s decision to become a policeman instead of going to college because she didn’t want anything to happen to her precious only son but Shane’s father respected his decision as a man to do whatever he wanted to do and left the college offer on the table for if he ever changed his mind. He then bought his son a new sports car as a graduation present and got him a swanky ‘bachelor’s pad,’ in a high rise apartment building in downtown Atlanta as well as an allowance that easily doubled his superior’s pay scale on the King County police force. As such Shane didn’t have to work while enrolled at the academy, but he loved the attention he got from women so he got a gig as a male escort for quick cash just for the hell of it and always bragged to Rick about all of the hot, older women he got to bang as an added ‘perk’ of the job. 

Rick knew that Shane had always thought that Lori was hot in high school but he never thought in a million years that his best friend would take it so far as to screw his wife behind his back. At the same time however, Shane, for the life of him, just couldn’t figure out how a quiet, boring, homebody like Rick (who actually read love poetry and frequently took his two younger brothers fishing for fun in his free time instead of riding dirt bikes with the guys or trying to get laid as frequently as possible,) had bagged a hot chick like Lori Winters, the prettiest and most popular girl at their high school. 

Best friend or not, Shane just couldn’t help checking Lori out whenever he got the chance, starting in high school and beyond. Aside from being flat chested (he’d always preferred girls with big boobs,) she was totally his type otherwise; tall, tan and slim with a pretty face that looked good without makeup and even better with it. She had gorgeous, ultra-long chestnut brown hair that almost reached her waist, big brown eyes, killer legs and she ALWAYS smelled amazing. She was always dressed in the latest fashion name brands as well and she was a very popular member of the ‘in crowd’ that Shane himself socialized with, which was another major plus in his book. Shane knew that Lori had liked him at the beginning of 12th grade and he liked her too but he was already dating a busty blonde college cheerleader named Andrea who attended Georgia Tech, so he just didn’t have time for Lori too. Shane wanted hot sex and lots of it, not just kissing and hand holding, and he knew that since Lori was a good girl who didn’t have a reputation for sleeping around, she’d probably be tough to get into the sack, so pursuing her just wasn’t an option when he already had Andrea giving it up to him whenever he wanted. Somehow Lori ended up going out with Rick not long after that and dated him for the rest of senior year. They got married the year after graduation, and since Shane and Rick ended up as partners on the force together and had remained tight over the years he visited Rick and Lori’s house often. He still always checked Lori out on the sly, and didn’t miss the fact that her gorgeous body had remained ‘high school skinny,’ even after popping out a kid, and over the years he thought that she had somehow gotten even prettier than she’d been back in high school. 

Shane frequently fantasized about banging her and even flirted with her playfully from time to time, but it was all in fun; he knew how much she and Rick loved each other. If he hadn’t started noticing how she’d started dressing differently and acting as though she was actually beginning to take his suggestive flirting seriously, he wouldn’t have ever thought twice about really screwing her. As soon as Rick started complaining to him about all of the problems they were having in the bedroom however, and revealed to him about spending so much time at the strip club instead of at home with his wife, it was easy for Shane to figure out what Lori needed and like the predator he was, he easily swooped in for the kill. He knew that Lori wasn’t a virgin when she and Rick got married but she wasn’t promiscuous either; she had a good reputation among their friends at school because she’d only made out with a couple of guys, and had only gone all the way with one of them before she got serious with Rick, so in Shane’s eyes she was still very much a ‘good girl,’ so he knew he’d have to plan carefully to get into her panties. 

Meanwhile, in all of the years that they’d been married, Rick never wanted to try anything too wild with Lori sexually. Surprisingly their ‘vanilla’ sex life was good between them early on; Rick was well endowed, and Lori enjoyed making love to him often, but after they had Carl and started working all of the time they somehow fell into a VERY boring routine; sex on the same night of the week (Saturday, unless it was one of their birthdays or an anniversary or something); sex in the same room in the house (their bedroom of course), same old foreplay (a few short minutes of kissing while he caressed her breasts, followed by about ten minutes of him giving her oral) and then the same old position (missionary of course,) ending with Rick climaxing with or without her (usually without; she’d become a pro at faking it just to get it over with,) then Rick snoring soundly within minutes. 

Although Rick always came, he only pretended to be fully satisfied; he wanted a lot more. He immensely enjoyed when she gave him head but he only occasionally asked her to do it because he always thought she felt degraded by it because she NEVER initiated it. She immensely enjoyed pleasing him in that way but because she’d been raised with the “good girls don’t do that” mentality, she didn’t know how to let him know that she wanted to do it- even though he was her HUSBAND! On the other hand, Rick was awesome at going down on her and she enjoyed it but he just never stayed at it long enough to really satisfy her completely but she didn’t quite know how to tell him she wasn’t satisfied without risking hurting his feelings. Lori regularly used her vibrators and bullet toys that she kept stashed in the back of her oversized cosmetic case under her vanity table to get off after Rick left for work and Carl was gone off to school in the mornings before she’d go teach classes in the afternoon down at the college, and late at night when Rick would work overtime on highway patrol (or so she thought,) she’d indulge after her son was long asleep, and although they were both extremely bored and unsatisfied in the bedroom, they just didn’t talk about it and went through the motions on Saturday nights. 

Shane on the other hand was an experienced gigolo and womanizer who could read women very well, and he easily seduced the naïve and sexually frustrated Lori by giving her the type of wild, sexual fulfillment he could sense that she was craving for. It started innocently enough; him calling to check on her when he knew for a fact that Rick was working late on a case (or at the strip club with their co-workers); texting her randomly to ask about Carl; stopping by the house unannounced whenever he knew for certain that Rick wasn’t there, then complimenting her hair or outfit and lingering much longer than necessary; but always leaving before Rick came back. One weekend when he knew that Rick was away on a fishing trip with his father and brothers, he called Lori up, supposedly to check on her and Carl. Lori let him know that she was okay but he insisted on stopping by the house anyway. She told him that he didn’t have to come across town just for her; Carl was across the street, spending the night at neighbor Morgan & Jenny’s home with his best friend Dwayne for his birthday sleep over with a few of their friends from the neighborhood. Shane saw his opportunity to finally have Lori all to himself in the house and drove straight over. 

When she answered the door in a colorful sundress and high heeled sandals, Shane openly stared at her long tanned legs and hot pink pedicure and licked his lips hungrily. He thought she looked even more gorgeous than ever. He played it off however and gave her a warm, brotherly hung that was a bit too tight and lasted much too long, then followed her into the house with a few beers and a big bottle of white wine in tow, and Lori scolded him for giving up a perfectly good Friday night to hang out with an ‘old housewife’ like her. She repeatedly tried to tried to rush him back out the door so that he could go have some fun but he refused to leave, lying that he didn’t have anywhere special to be because the woman he’d been seeing for the past few months had cancelled on him yet again for their standing Friday night dinner date. “Third time this month,” he pouted with the sad, puppy dog eyed expression and Lori just ate it up. She made a salad and ordered them a pizza and Shane made himself at home on the couch while waiting for it to be delivered. 

Lori joined him on the opposite end of the couch and stared at him a long time while he pretended to be engrossed in the baseball game on the big screen TV. ‘He is entirely too gorgeous to be all alone on a Friday night,” she thought, crossing her long, toned legs in his direction demurely, all the while taking in his muscular thighs and the HUGE bulge protruding in the front of his snug fitting black jeans. She forced her eyes upwards and away from his crotch but then she couldn’t help zooming in on his bulging biceps and ripped abs barely hidden under his tight black t-shirt. She couldn’t comprehend what in hell was wrong with the heartless and possibly BLIND woman who’d stood him up. She then remembered the rumors some girls used to spread about how great he was in bed back in high school and it made her blush. 

Just at that moment, Shane turned and after catching her staring at his body, he smiled, almost as if he were reading her dirty thoughts. He quickly scooted closer to her on the couch. “Have a drink with me, Lori,” he murmured, while pouring her a big glass of wine. 

“Shane!” she giggled. “I shouldn’t! Wine makes me a little crazy sometimes.” 

“You? Crazy? Little goody two shoes Lori Winters from King County High? Never!” he laughed. He knew it was true however. Rick had randomly mentioned to him years before that wine always made Lori super horny. She tried to protest but he insisted that she help him drown his sorrows and she finally gave in, having one glass of wine then another and then a third to calm her heated nerves. She rarely drank and once the pizza came, she was well on her way to being quite tipsy. As they ate, Shane kept her wine glass filled, while he only had two light beers. Before long Lori was nearly drunk and got all mushy and teary eyed, pouring out her feelings of frustration to him about the situation with Rick, even revealing that she had to use a vibrator to get any satisfaction.

Shane put his big, muscular arm around her and played the role of the shoulder to cry on while possessively caressing her back. He soothed all her worries and concerns with heartfelt promises that he’d talk to Rick man to man on her behalf. Lori made him promise not to say anything and he played the understanding male friend role to the hilt. He then hesitatingly confessed that he’d only been putting up with the woman who stood him up for so long because he couldn’t ever have the woman that he really wanted. Lori gazed into his eyes and asked him who the mystery woman was, and he grabbed her face gently and revealed that he’d been deeply in love with her since high school then kissed her dead on the lips. 

Lori was beyond shocked and was about to rebuff him but he then kissed her again deeply and passionately, taking her breath away. He then immediately apologized, saying that he was ashamed of himself because he wasn’t able to hold back his feelings for her any longer; (seriously, he deserved an Oscar for his performance!) Surprisingly the look on Lori’s face said clearly that she wasn’t mad with him or sorry about the kiss. “I won’t tell Rick,” she whispered, “but it can never, ever happen again.”

Shane agreed, but after a long moment of staring into each others eyes, he eagerly took the opportunity to kiss her again, even longer that time, plundering her mouth with his long, hot tongue, leaving her speechless, breathless and not to mention, VERY turned on. She’d NEVER been kissed like that in her life and all of the wine she’d consumed had her neglected body feeling tingly all over. Shane then jumped up and told her that he should leave before he did something they might regret. The look that she gave him after that said clearly that she wanted more and that was all the invitation Shane needed and the next thing Lori knew, he was kissing and licking her neck with a passion she’d never felt before. Her sundress was a wrap style and he easily tugged the front of it open and laid her back across the couch to greedily devour her neck with hot, wet kisses. After tossing her flimsy, lacy bra across the room he hungrily sucked her nipples to hardened peaks and possessively massaged her small yet perky breasts until she was moaning for more. She gasped when he slid his large hand inside her pink panties, and after finding her soaked for him he then eased them her down her long legs and pulled then off her foot with his teeth. He then happily buried his face between her sexy, toned thighs, opting to leave her high heels on while he ate her pussy like a starving man and she was the best thing he’d ever tasted. Lori was in ecstasy, moaning loud and long from the forbidden pleasure. Shane was relentless and it wasn’t long before she came hard with an intensely pleasurable climax but Shane was insatiable and he just kept going and going like the Energizer Bunny.

Lori couldn’t stop shaking as Shane DEVOURED her pussy like a feral beast; it was exactly what she’d been in need of and he knew it all along. He went down on her for well over an hour, making her cum over and over again. Then when he FINALLY had mercy on her and raised his head, his lust-filled, heavy lidded eyes gazing at her hungrily while his lips and chin were glistening with her juices, all she could think about was the monstrous bulge in his jeans as she begged him to take her. “Shane... I need you to fuck me! Please!” 

“Lori... no... I... I can’t possibly do that to Rick! I’ve already done too much,” he lied with a pleading look while wiping her hot juices of his lips and chin with the back of his hand. “I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t be sorry... I’m just as guilty as you are, and... I don’t care!”

“I want to... but we can’t!” 

“Shane please!” she moaned. “I know it’s wrong... but I... I need it so bad,” she moaned helplessly, spreading her long legs open wide for him. “It’s been so long!” she whined.'

Shane couldn’t tear his eyes away from her soaked center. ‘God she’s gorgeous,' he thought to himself. 'Rick’s a goddamned fool for neglecting her... leaving her like this,’ Shane thought to himself as he pondered her offer. He was tempted; he REALLY wanted to screw the living daylights out of her, especially after going down on her like that but he used all the restraint he could muster up and insisted that he should leave before things went any further, and begged her not to tell Rick about what he’d done because it would kill him if he lost his best friend because of his “deep love and uncontrolled lust,” for her. He wanted to fuck her... REALLY bad, but he knew that if he turned her down now and left her there soaked and trembling with need, she wouldn’t confess to Rick about what had happened... and she’d come looking for more sooner or later and he could do whatever he wanted with her, on his terms. Lori again swore she wouldn’t tell and when he finally left (after yet another long, smoldering hot kiss that took her breath away,) he whispered to her that he’d always love her, he knew that it wouldn’t be long before he could claim his prize. 

He laughed on his drive to the home of the latest broad he'd been screwing, knowing full well that Lori was going to wear out the batteries in her vibrator that night and for several nights to come just thinking about how he’d devoured her pussy. He had to admit, he’d really outdone himself. ‘She’s so freakin’ hot! She came at least three times from my tongue alone and I even made her squirt... She was practically beggin’ for my cock. Rick’s a bona fide idiot for leaving her unattended night after night!’ he thought to himself with a proud grin. He was glad he’d stopped himself from boning her that night though; he'd already had plans to screw Andrea, his ex from high school whom he was still 'friends with benefits" with all those years later, and whose home he was headed to, and understood that with a little restraint on his part that night he’d have Lori eating out of the palm of his hand too in no time, and as dependent on his skills in bed as a drug addict fiends for their poison of choice. He KNEW that his going down on her like that would be ALL she would think about for days and it wasn’t long before she called him begging for more. He was more than happy to give it to her and within a couple of weeks they were screwing regularly behind Rick’s back, at Shane’s apartment in the city as well as in hotels in and out of town and even occasionally in Rick & Lori’s bed during his lunch breaks on days she was off work and he and Rick weren’t on patrol together because she just couldn’t get enough of his long tongue and his huge cock and she was beyond caring about anything beyond her getting her next orgasm from him. 

Shane’s skills in the sack ECLIPSED Rick’s and her neglected body craved his touch like it needed its next breath. She couldn’t help herself; Rick was so ‘vanilla’ in the bedroom and she could barely stand him touching her before long. Shane on the other hand was so experienced, he played her neglected body like a finely tuned instrument, and his prowess gave her the sexual intensity she needed, as well as the courage to take what she wanted in bed. Shane encouraged her to use his body for her pleasure, as well as easily sensed that she might like to be dominated in bed from time to time. He insisted that she go down on him every time they had sex, introduced her to ‘back door’ and even sensually spanked her from time to time and she loved every minute of it. He complimented everything she did and since he was seemingly ALWAYS in the mood, he seemed to really enjoy doing whatever she asked of him in bed which gave her even more confidence. He loved going down on her for as long as she needed it, ALWAYS for well over an hour, then made it a point to screw her soundly until she couldn’t take anymore and fell into a damn near comatose sleep. He effortlessly made her scream, quiver and cum hard, repeatedly, every single time they had sex. Their lovemaking was so intense it scared her yet she only wanted more and more. Shane’s body was like a drug to her. 

Surprisingly the naïve and totally devoted way Lori responded to Shane in bed would have normally bored him after a while, but his decade long desire for her somehow caused him to fall deep in love with her- for real. The way she submitted herself to him sexually gave his already over-inflated ego an infinite high, and before long, his initial infatuation with her soon bordered on the point of obsession. He had more than his fair share of women, but one by one he ditched them all in favor of Lori; he even finally ended his ongoing affair with Andrea; none of the other women in his harem matched up to her in his opinion. He wanted Lori for his own and his desire for her clouded his judgment to the point where he’d begun plotting a way to take her away from Rick for good.

Meanwhile...  
Rick on the other hand was no saint; doing far more than paying for lap dances before long. When Lori cut him off sexually once she started regularly screwing Shane, he began hooking up with Jessie, the gorgeous and recently widowed dispatch clerk at the precinct, initially for oral sex then for intercourse. She’d been flirting with him for months, and Rick had no qualms about getting a little wild with Jessie. Her former husband Pete, a pediatrician from Alexandria, VA had started drinking and getting abusive toward her before his untimely (and mysterious) death the year before, and Jessie got over him very quickly. She had Pete’s insurance money to live on but got the job at the precinct to stay busy and immediately jumped back into the dating game; namely with a few guys at the station. She soon had a bit of a reputation among the couple of guys she’d already screwed (including Oscar, Spencer, and Shane not surprisingly) but Rick didn’t care. She was sexy, easy and available and since she wasn’t the mother of his kid he felt free to get loose with her and do all of the uninhibited sex acts he didn’t think Lori would be willing to try (including experimenting with sex toys, having quickies in his squad car, and watching porn together at her place then trying everything they’d seen in the movies.) The sex was EXPLOSIVE between them and Rick soon became hooked on her.

Rick started getting suspicious of Lori and Shane before much longer however when Carl began randomly telling him, quite innocently, just how often “Uncle Shane” called Mommy’s cell phone, and how frequently Mommy called him, and how often he came over to see Mommy when he wasn’t at home, and noticed that neither Mommy, nor ‘Uncle Shane’ were informing him of most of these increasingly frequent calls and visits. He’d been so busy chasing Jessie but he soon started paying much closer attention to Lori’s behavior and noticed that she was texting someone a hell of a lot lately and whenever he’d randomly question her about it, she’d either lie and say she was playing some game on her phone or she’d change the subject. He started monitoring her coming and goings in the evenings and on the weekends as well, and was shocked when he realized that she’d been paying neighborhood teen Beth Greene a small fortune to pick Carl up from school most days and babysit him at her house until just before he got off on the nights he let her know he’d be working late which was much more often than not since he was secretly spending so much time at Jessie’s condo. He was also stunned by her new spending habits once he started closely monitoring the credit card bills and was amazed at her new manner of dress when he started paying closer attention. She now had an arsenal of expensive perfumes and ‘fuck me’ heels, a sexy new wardrobe, as well as a ton of new jewelry (gifts from Shane,) and dozens of hot, new bra and panty sets from Victoria’s Secret® and Frederick’s of Hollywood, and he even found some naughty teddies and negligees from high end boutiques like La Perla® and Agent Provocateur® hidden in the closet of their guest bedroom (also compliments of Shane because he could afford to buy her things well beyond the means of the average cop due to his hefty trust fund allowance money from his parents) that she certainly wasn’t wearing for him. No more ‘mom jeans’ with a casual top and flat sandals for work; Lori now wore short skirts with sexy heels just about every day, “in case she went out for a drink “with the girls” after work. Even her grooming habits had gotten an upgrade. No more at home shaves or Nair® bikini depilatory creams from time to time for Lori; she now got Brazilian bikini waxes at a fancy downtown Atlanta spa (Shane went absolutely WILD when she went completely bare for him down there.) She even started shaving her legs every other day he noticed; in the past once every other week or so had sufficed since Rick wasn’t too particular. She’d also started having her hair tinted, trimmed and styled professionally too, and made frequent trips to the nail salon for pedicures, brow waxing and eyelash extensions, and visits to the tanning salon almost became a religious habit as well. Long gone were the days of laying out by the pool for an hour in the sun and painting her toenails herself. More and more frequently she was supposedly ‘working late’’ or ‘hanging out with the girls after work for drinks’, ‘going shopping with Carol’ and ‘visiting my sister in Macon,’ or going to ‘Savannah Beach with my sorority sisters’ for weekends at a time, and after a while Rick couldn’t remember the last time they’d gone out to eat with Carl as a family, on a double date with Carol and Daryl or just the two of them. She had no time for Rick anymore. When Shane called her she eagerly jumped and ran to do his bidding. 

Surprisingly Jessie, Rick’s mistress, worked part time as a stylist at Lori’s hair salon, but their schedules rarely coincided so the two never exchanged enough gossip to figure out their connection. Rick began noticing simultaneously that Shane was taking a lot of days off here and there and when they did work together he either spoke cryptically or stayed super quiet in their squad car while constantly texting some new mystery lady throughout the day, and was often unavailable to hang out with him and the guys on any evenings they decided to go bowling or out for beers at the strip club and had become totally incognito on the weekends. After secretly checking Lori’s cell phone records online Rick finally put two and two together and figured out what was happening and he went TOTALLY ballistic but at the same time his guilt about Jessie prevented him from going too crazy on Lori and he felt compelled to confess what he’d done as well. He didn’t think he’d EVER be able to forgive Shane but he didn’t want to lose his family over a fling so he promised to give Jessie up and forgave his wife for her affair, insisting that she stop seeing Shane immediately as well. Lori forgave him too but she shocked him by revealing that she’d just found out that she was pregnant by Shane and wanted a divorce. Rick was stunned and tried to convince her to stay; insisting that he could “simply raise the baby as his own, and they could get past this,” but Lori flat out refused. She wanted to be with Shane and he was happy about becoming a father. It sounded insane but Lori was so hooked on Shane’s cock that she’d become oblivious to everything else. Rick eventually gave up and granted her the separation. 

It was impossible for him to work with Shane after that however and after explaining what was going on to the sheriff, he threatened to quit the force as well as do Shane bodily harm if he didn’t get a new partner immediately and he was paired up with Abraham Ford, a former Army Drill Sergeant who’d taken an early retirement but after staying at home for a few months had become quite bored and decided to give police work a try. They hit it off great and Rick was glad to make a new friend… particularly one who already had a woman and wouldn’t be after his (Abe’s beautiful wife Sasha was an RN at Grady Memorial Hospital,) and he also started going hunting with Daryl pretty frequently around that time since he definitely couldn’t socialize with Shane ever again and their friendship flourished, even though the days of their double dates with their wives had come to a crashing halt. Shane ended up getting transferred to the Senoia office, and was assigned to guard Governor Phillip Blake’s mansion on the graveyard shift, a boring job that he DESPISED but had no other choice until another position opened up. Rick continued dating Jessie surprisingly, but then she shocked him by abruptly ending their relationship. Once the secrecy and excitement of their affair was gone she dumped him, deciding to move back up to Alexandria, Virginia to open her own hair salon and be closer to family.  
Rick was deeply depressed and it took him a long time to get over it. Surprisingly however the divorce process itself ended amicably, he and Lori opting to co-parent Carl with Lori taking primary custody, and she married Shane before the ink was dry on the divorce papers, and later gave birth to a baby girl named Judith who looked exactly like Shane to add insult to injury. 

Michonne Anthony, Esq., was Rick’s divorce lawyer, and once everything was finalized she told him that his separation and divorce had been the easiest mediation case she’d ever handled because while most divorces were a nasty custody and property battle, he and Lori actually wanted all of the same things. Rick didn’t want the house, there were just too many memories in there and Lori wanted to sell it fast to get her share of the money to buy a new place to live with Shane. Lori wanted to keep her fancy new SUV and Rick couldn’t care less about the truck as long as he didn’t have to continue paying for it; “let Shane pay for her overpriced toys from now on,” he thought to himself with a sneer. Lori wanted primary custody of Carl and she also wanted a monthly child support payment settlement as well as help with Carl’s college fund and Rick was cool with all of that; as long as he had unlimited visitation with his son he was happy and didn’t mind forking over the stipend that Lori was demanding. She knew better than to try to demand an allowance for herself in addition to child support since the divorce was technically her fault and she made good money teaching art at the college and as such could easily support herself, not to mention that she now had direct access to Shane’s hefty trust fund interest payments each month pouring in, in addition to his salary at the Senoia Sherriff’s office. Rick heartily approved her demands with no contest; all he wanted was visitation with his son and ownership of their Tybee Island vacation home, as well as possession of all of their other vehicles (his Ford F-150 pickup, his restored ‘73 Dodge Charger, his fishing boat and his Harley), which Lori approved of wholeheartedly, and they had surprisingly remained cordial to each other throughout the whole ordeal. 

What Michonne didn’t tell Rick was that she couldn’t understand why Lori wanted to leave such a great guy like him for Shane Walsh, whom Rick had described as a ‘cocky, slutty, man-whore, sleaze-ball’; Lori herself had even told the judge that Rick was an awesome father, had been a loving husband and a generous provider; they’d just married much too young and she’d simply fallen out of love with him. She even admitted her infidelity before the judge and publicly apologized to Rick for ruining their marriage and breaking up their happy family, and he forgave her in front of everyone and said he hoped they could move on as co-parents and friends. 

Michonne felt really sorry for Rick. It was obvious that even though he acted like he was okay, he was very depressed about the whole thing and had even seen a therapist. Michonne thought that he was beyond gorgeous and was finding it very hard to ignore her strong sexual attraction to him. It was soon obvious during their sessions together that the feeling was mutual, and they both struggled very hard to keep things strictly business. On the day the divorce was finalized and all of the court proceedings commenced, Rick took a chance and finally invited Michonne out for drinks that evening. She very reluctantly declined, letting him know that it was against her firm’s policy for staff to fraternize with clients, hoping he’d get the hint that if he weren’t her client she would’ve definitely gone out with him.

“It’s not a date Michonne, just a beer to celebrate our landslide victory,” he replied with a wink.

“Landslide victory?” she laughed. “It wasn’t exactly a knock-down, drag out fight in there! You and Lori both got everything you wanted, your kid is adjusting well and there was no bloodshed in the courtroom so I’d say it was a win-win. You two had the most civil and amicable divorce I’ve ever seen!” she laughed. “She even apologized to you and took responsibility for her affair before the judge! In all my years of practicing family law I’ve never seen that before!”

“It was still a victory! I don’t have to pay her an allowance, just child support and Carl’s college education which was what I expected to pay anyway. We’re splitting the profits from sale of the house which was an amazing pay out, she has to pay for that monstrously overpriced truck of hers and I get to spend time with my son whenever I want due to the unlimited visitation you got her to agree to and I get to keep my Harley and the beach house. You’re my she-ro!”

“But I didn’t do anything except prepare the paperwork and talk you through the mediation and other proceedings.”

“Yes, and because of your counsel I’m a free man who didn’t get taken to the cleaners by my cheating ex! I get my son most weekends and still have my dignity and my bank account intact! And another thing… I’m not your client anymore! As of the last bang of the judges’ gavel, the divorce was done, remember? My bill to your firm is paid in full and I’m a free man in more ways than one. So please say you’ll go out with me, come on please?” he asked with begging, puppy dog eyes, but she still wouldn’t agree to go out with him.

Rick was disappointed so he decided to just put himself out there and let her know how he really felt. “I don’t know how to say this but, I’m really interested in getting to know you better, Michonne. For more than getting a drink.”

“I know... and believe me Rick, I’d love to, but you are on the rebound. And you told me you’ve been dealing with some depression about your break up. Look, just take some time to process what just happened. If you still feel the same way in a couple months, or even a year if that’s what it takes, look me up.”

“Fair enough… but I’ve got a bad feeling you’ll probably be taken by then!”

“Maybe… maybe not,” she said with a wink. 

The rest was history. Rick and Michonne started dating a year later, and after seeing each other exclusively for a good while, they got married, and had been blessed with two small boys, Andre and Antoine. They often socialized with Daryl & Carol who’d happily welcomed Michonne into their circle, and Daryl immediately liked her infinitely more than Lori. Although she held a Juris Doctorate degree and was licensed to practice law in three states, had black belts in both Tae Kwon Do and Muy Thai and even taught Japanese sword fighting in her free time, Michonne somehow fit right in with their decidedly ‘blue collar’ group. She and Carol immediately became fast friends, she swore like a sailor when she drank, could beat the guys at both at pool AND cards half the time and could even drink Daryl under the table when they did shots on their occasional double and triple dates with Abe and Sasha and that made her more than alright in Daryl’s book!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daryl notices something about Carol... and likes what he sees!

Daryl was hoping that they could make it to Rick's without stopping again but sure enough, just before he took the exit to the bridge that would take them to the island, Carol let him know that she had to pee (again) and requested that they take one last bathroom break.  Daryl nodded then pulled in at the rest stop up ahead; she'd had two decaf coffees as well as a big bottle of spring water and several sips of his sweet tea on the ride after all (and not to mention more than half of his second slice of pizza when they stopped for lunch.)  

He didn't care about the pizza of course nor the repetitive rest stops; he was just glad to see that she had her appetite back and was getting back to her old self again.  Carol had a very petite body but she could eat like a horse when she wanted to; lately however her devoted husband couldn't help noticing that she hadnt been eating much nor drinking anything other than water, hot tea and ginger ale.  For the past few weeks she couldn't hold much of anything down aside from saltine crackers and plain toast and had only just gotten over the nasty stomach bug that had plagued her terribly for the past month and since she was normally fit as a fiddle Daryl had been more than a little concerned.  After observing her throwing up one time too many for his liking, he suggested that she see a doctor soon but she insisted that she was fine, just feeling "a little nauseous" some mornings lately but explained it all away by referring to a "stomach virus" that was going around. Then a few days ago, her symptoms went away just as mysteriously as they had appeared and she seemed like herself again (which was quite obvious to Daryl by the way she'd devoured his pizza.) 

"Be right back, Pookie," she murmured with a soft peck on his cheek before getting out of the car and he watched her intently as she went inside.  He couldn't quite put his finger on it but Carol looked... different to him in that instant.  As she headed back toward the car a few moments later he couldn't help staring at her again and just like before he realized that something seemed a little off.  She was wearing a pair of khaki shorts, flat sandals and a midriff top that showed off her waist line, but the longer he stared it then suddenly hit him that her breasts looked a bit fuller than usual.  He then figured that she'd probably lost a pound or two while she was sick, and now that her appetite was back she must've gained it all back in her chest.  When she got back in the car he was grinning from ear to ear thinking about getting his hands on her when they retired for the evening. 

Carol meant the world to Daryl and he was really looking forward to his long weekend getaway with her.  They'd taken the kids on a weeklong family trip to Disney at the beginning of the summer as part of their high school graduation present and after that they'd both been working way too much lately in preparation for the twins going off to school and hardly ever took time off to just be alone, but now that the kids would be gone in a few weeks he would finally have his favorite girl all to himself and he couldn't wait.  

Daryl and Carol started dating in their sophomore year of high school and had been inseparable ever since.  They were friends at first then fell deep in love rather suddenly. Carol was initially dating Ed Peletier at the time but there was something about him that seemed a bit off (she'd started seeing signs that deep down he wasn't quite as nice as he pretended to be) and she ended things with him before the relationship went too far. Daryl on the other hand was a bit rough around the edges but on the inside he was kind and sweet with a heart of gold. He'd always liked Carol from afar and when they became friends he found right off the bat that she was understanding and sincere and that he could talk to her about anything, even his somewhat troubled home life due to his parent's drinking problem and his older brother's occasional trouble with the law.  They started spending a lot of time together and it wasn't long before Daryl was deeply in love with Carol and all of the other guys at school who'd had their eyes on her could tell that she was strictly off limits simply by the way Dixon looked at her. She'd never judged his less than stellar background and she understood him better than anyone he'd ever known.  He on the other hand made it obvious that he was devoted to Carol and cherished her with all his heart and that soothed the deep loneliness she often felt because her wealthy, politically connected parents were always much too busy for her and frequently lavished her with gifts instead of giving her their time and attention.  

Carol got pregnant on the night of the senior prom. She and Daryl eloped the summer after graduation and were blessed with the twins early that following year.  It had been tough; her parents disapproved and money was really tight in the early days.  Carol's family was well off but they hadn't liked her dating Daryl Dixon in the first place and when she got pregnant by him they didn't hide their disappointment  over her decision to marry him in secret.  They had big plans for Carol's future and they didn't include her becoming a teen pregnancy statistic nor marriage to a Dixon, a family of no stature or importance whatsoever in their upper class, old Atlanta social world. Of course they insisted on helping the young couple financially so that they could get on their feet for the new babies' sake at least but Carol soon realized that every dollar that they accepted from her parents came laced with blatant criticism and scrutiny of her and her new husband's dependence on them, their supposed lack of parenting skills and every other detail of their lives together in general was up for discussion and Carol soon grew tired of their constant ridicule before long.  

After informing them of just how hurt and embarrassed Daryl felt by their constant criticism and rejection and that by hurting him they were also hurting her and their grandchildren, Carol refused any more help from them until they changed their opinion of her new family.  Daryl took on not one but two full time jobs to afford their tiny apartment and daycare so that Carol wouldn't have to work and could attend business school full time without anymore help from her folks; working tirelessly as a mechanic's assistant 6 days a week and as a short order cook at a local diner most nights.   A few years passed, and once the twins were in school Carol opened her bookstore and coffee shop and once profits started coming in Daryl was able to take a bartending class, then enrolled in cooking school because becoming a chef and owning his own restaurant had always been his dream.  He and good friend T-Dog then opened the first Double D's location not long after that and it was an immediate success and the rest was history.  It had been tough in the beginning but by starting out so young and working so hard, he and Carol were now only 36 with two grown children (Sam and Sophia had just turned 18 that past March,) a beautiful home and thriving businesses of their own with plenty of money in the bank and still  young enough to enjoy the life they'd built together.  They were still deeply in love and would finally be able to fully enjoy one another and that upcoming weekend was to mark the beginning of the new phase of their lives.  

They'd initially planned to get away alone for their upcoming anniversary weekend but their accepting of the Grimes' invitation to stay a few days down at their summer home before the summer ended had already been postponed twice earlier in the summer due to both their respective families business obligations and so they decided that with the kids going off to school in a few weeks they'd have plenty of time to be alone so they didn't mind Rick and Michonne's  invitation coinciding with their special day.   
\------  
A  little while later Daryl's GPS led them to the scenic beach community the Grimes' called home every summer.  Michonne's law firm had an office in nearby Savannah where she practiced every year from June through August, and Rick's recent promotion from the King County local law enforcement offices to a high ranking  position with the state's Special Police allowed him to work from anywhere in the great state of Georgia.  The beach house that he'd been so adamant about keeping during his divorce was originally owned by his maternal grandparents and had been gifted to him by his own parents as a wedding present when he married Lori.  The home had originally been built in the 1920s and had been well maintained and frequently updated and remodeled, and the rear of the sprawling, three story, oceanfront beach house had a deck overlooking the in-ground swimming pool and had direct access to the Atlantic ocean with a private strip of beach, and from the top floor, there was a great view of the nearby fishing pier and the numerous boardwalk hotels and other private homes just up the block.  

Daryl parked the SUV between Michonne's brown Mercedes Benz sedan and Abraham's signature big red Ford F-250 truck and began unloading his and Carol's bags. Carol jumped out and headed abound back to the patio area and Daryl chuckled to himself as he heard both Michonne and Sasha loudly squealing their surprised and happy greetings. A few minutes later Rick and Abe came around front to supposedly help him with the bags, but they weren't much help... Abe was holding a beer in one hand and a fresh off the grill burger in the other, and Rick was wearing his infamous "Kiss the Cook" apron while holding a spatula in one hand and a bottle of lighter fluid in the other. Daryl greeted his old friends with a laugh and a brotherly hug; it was gonna be a great weekend.


End file.
